Delhi Minister directs agencies to undertake water sprinkling after Diwali

New Delhi, Nov 5 : With the air quality going beyond the "severe" category, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Monday directed all concerned agencies to undertake water sprinkling from high-rise buildings after Diwali for settling the suspended dust particles.

All municipal corporations (MCDs), Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Fire Service will sprinkle water from high-rise buildings after Diwali on Wednesday, a Delhi government statement said.

Hussain also directed all senior officers of MCDs, PWD, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to "step up their efforts to ensure no local factors of air pollution remain ignored".

"Be on full alert and take all possible efforts for the control of air pollution, given the spurt in stubble burning in neighbouring states and adverse meteorological conditions," Hussain said.

The Minister directed the Municipal Corporations to ensure that vehicles carrying garbage to the landfill sites are properly covered.

"The vehicles must carry valid pollution certificates.

No garbage-carrying vehicle, which is more than 10 years old, should ply on the roads," he said.

They were also directed to provide details of all the vehicles used for lifting and transporting waste material.

Hussain directed that all stacks of building materials on the roads should be immediately removed and those responsible penalised.

"Construction material lying on the sites should be sprinkled with water and should also remain covered," he said.

Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) on Monday experienced the first smog of the season, with air pollutants going up many times higher than the permissible limits and the air quality falling under the "severe-plus" or "emergency" category.

The air quality index of Delhi at 2 p.m.

was 407.

The average volume of PM2.5 and PM10 across 35 regions in Delhi was 368 and 507 microgrammes per cubic metre, which was 14 times higher than the limit.